If you ask me, few if any filmmakers produce the kind of work that markets itself to the degree that writer-director Damien Leone’s Terrifier movies do.
The killer clown shock-fest at the heart of Leone’s franchise — which is getting its third installment, Terrifier 3, on Oct. 11 — is so gory, so disgusting, and so over-the-top in the way that it scares moviegoers out of their minds that an angry mother actually launched a Change.org petition against the “evil” second film in the franchise (“My son Bradley, 14, can hardly sleep at night after him and his cousin decided to see this,” she wrote as part of the petition to get the movie canceled).
Not only did that effort unsurprisingly fail, but now here comes an even more intense third outing for the still-expanding horror franchise. It’s a film that already freaked some people out before they’d even settled into their cushy chairs for early UK screenings — specifically, because of a sign posted outside the screening which warned that Terrifier 3 “contains extreme violence and excessive gore.”
It goes on: “If you are feeling unwell, please find a member of staff. Staff trained in first aid are on site.” (Serious question: When’s the last time you saw a movie that came with warnings about first aid being present in case you need it?)
The Christmas-themed Terrifier 3 recently held its world premiere during the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. As for what it’s about, the short and sweet official synopsis holds back most of the details: “Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) is set to unleash another round of chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.”
From what I can tell, Leone has doubled down on the shock factor for the new movie in the service of giving fans something that feels all too rare at the theater these days — an unforgettable experience. The kind of experience that rattles them, stays with them, and, most importantly, gets them talking to everyone else about it. And on a related note: This franchise doesn’t seem like it’s ending anytime soon, either, with Leone reportedly full of “a lot of ideas” for how a Terrifier 4 might exponentially ramp up the fear factor.
